June 11/09 20:30 pm - Tour de Beauce: Stage 3 report and photos

Posted by Editoress on 06/11/09

As expected, today's 155 kilometre Megantic stage completely rearranged the overall standings, with Colombians finishing 1-2 on the stage and moving into the top two GC spots. Darwin Atapuma won the stage with the same time as team mate Sergio Luis Henao. Initially, Atapuma was awarded the Yellow Jersey, and the Young Rider and Climber Jerseys also. Shortly afterwards, officials realized that Henao had taken a three second time bonus in an earlier intermediate sprint, so Henao is actually the overall leader (and holds the Young Rider Jersey).

Cam Evans (Canadian National Team) was the top Canadian finisher in 14th, 3:44 down on the Colombians. Ryan Roth (Planet Energy) remains the leading Canadian in the overall standings, but drops from third to ninth, 3:25 behind Henao.

"After my crash [at Tour of the Gila in Arizona], I spent two weeks completely off the bike, and am just getting back into competition now, so I didn't know what to expect here," said Evans. "I suffered for the first couple of days here, but it is getting better every day. I'm here looking for stage wins, not the an overall standing, so there's still a couple of chances in the last two stages."

The Megantic stage usually follows a formula: a breakaway of non-dangerous riders gets away and builds up a substantial lead before the top teams begin to reel them in. The break often starts the final six kilometre climb to the finish in front of the peloton and sometimes stays away, and sometimes is caught. Meanwhile, a battle rages among the top contenders.

This year was different. Possibly it was because so many teams were still in contention (nine of fifteen), however, it meant that a fierce battle raged for the first 40 kilometres before a break finally formed. The constant attacking until that point kept the pace above 50 kilometres an hour for most of the first hour, with a number of riders shed from the bunch and forced to chase on their own for the remainder of the day.

Finally, just before the start of the first KoM, San Bewley (Trek Livestrong) made a solo move and was allowed away. The young rider quickly gained more than two minutes on the field, which strung out on the KoM as riders went for points.

There were a few danger riders in this group, including Aldape and Jones, so Fly V Australia went to the front to pull it back when the gap approached two and a half minutes. Their work- assisted by Colombia and BMC - began to pull the breakaways back, and they were within sight after 85 kilometres, and just before the feed zone.

"It kind of rolled away," explained Evans, "it was just one of those things - two guys went, and then three more, then a couple more ... Colombia had three guys, so they started it rolling right away and we got two minutes almost immediately."

Eight riders were dropped by the leaders (Cruz, Kreder and Salon, Rodriguez, Wilson, Parisien, Langlois and Smukulis), leaving 16 in the front group, who were not wasting any time getting down the road.

Planet Energy led the chase for more than 20 kilometre, in support of their GC rider Roth, but received little assistance, with the other teams either represented up front or exhausted after the high pace earlier in the day.

"It was hard all day, with lots of attacks, and when the [second] break went it was dangerous for us, with Chris Jones and the Colombians up there. It wasn't a good situation, so we had to chase, but we didn't have much gas left."

Planet Energy director Steve Bauer summed it up succinctly: "We missed the boat. I had warned the guys to watch for a counter [when the first break came back], by Ryan wasn't there, so we had to chase if we wanted a chance to stay in the race."

Colombia was doing the lion's share of the work in the break, with Rodriguez in particular sacrificing himself for his two team mates. the effort was working, with the group hitting the slopes of Megantic with an over three minute lead on the peloton.

Once at the base of the main climb, with 5.5 kilometres of serious climbing ahead of them, the Colombian duo of Atapuma and Henao rode straight off the front of the group, while the rest just watched them go. Henao did the majority of pace setting, as the pair seemed to float up the climb while some of the chasers were weaving from side to side on steeper sections. Into the finish, Henao sat up to let his team mate take the stage victory.

"Whenever we could, we attacked today," said Atapuma, "but we knew that the big climb at the end was the important one. Our plan was to work for the GC, and the decision to have me win was a personal one that Sergio and I made on the road."

Next across the line was Neil Shirley, at 1:19, followed by Selanler at 1:27 and Jones at 1:32. then the gaps started getting bigger as the remnants of the break struggled in. The first 12 members managed to finish before the leaders of the peloton came storming up through, with GC contender Darren Lill (Team Type 1) finishing an impressive 13th - but still 3:39 behind Henao and Atapuma. Former Beauce winner Ben Day was the next contender across the line in 18th (4:21 back), while the soon to be former Yellow Jersey Danilo Wyss (BMC) came in 20th, 4:47 down.

After the dust settled, Henao holds a three second advantage over Atapuma, with Zwizanski third at 39 seconds. From there it is a long way back to Jones in fourth at 1:34 and Lill at 2:15. Day is now seventh, but 3:03 back, and Roth, as previously mentioned, ninth at 3:25.

Race Notes

- Tomorrow is the 20 kilometre time trial, which may rearrange things again. However, unlike previous years, where climbers were trounced in the time trial, Henao is a fairly good time trialer, according to his team. He finished sixth in the U23 Nations Cup Time Trial last weekend, however, it was only 8.65 kilometres. If Lill or Day can't unseat Henao tomorrow, it is unlikely that they will be able to drop him on the two final stages, which have lots of climbing.

- The 20 kilometre time trial is the traditional out-and-back course used before at both Beauce and the National Championships. Starting and finishing, riders zigzag through residential streets before a long steady climb out of St-Georges. After a false flat section there is a downhill to the turnaround, meaning another climb back up and a fast downhill finish. The first rider is off at 9:31 am (Steven Gordon of DLP Racing), with Henao departing at 11:10 am, and finishing before Noon. In the evening there is the traditional 60 kilometre (40 lap) criterium in downtown St-Georges. It does not count for GC.

- Evans also spoke about his crash at Tour of the Gila - he is still sporting bandages and scars on his face from it. "There were two that were potentially bad: I had a bad concussion; I didn't wake up after it until I was in the hospital, and something like that always knocks you around for a few weeks after. I had also lacerated my eyelid, and they had to stitch it shut to let it heal. They were worried about potential damage to my eye, but it is fine now."

"I just had to rest and let my body heal, that took a couple of weeks off the bike, so I've only had two weeks back. They've been solid weeks, but it takes racing to really come around. Now it's a matter of getting my racing legs back."

And what about the time trial, since he is a former champion in this discipline? "That's a tough call ... I came here looking for stage wins, not a GC spot. The national team has a lower budget [than pro teams], so I have no skinsuit, no aero helmet ... I don't know whether it is worth going for it, or saving myself for the last two stages."